Men's Water Polo World Cup 2010, Day 3: Unbeaten Spain and Croatia top respective group

The end of today’s last game – the 12th – marked the conclusion of the preliminary round. From the 4th day all games – quarterfinals on Friday, semi-finals on Saturday and finals on Sunday - will end with a winner and a loser. Spain and Croatia topped Group A and B respectively; Romania and Serbia were second; Australia and USA third; Iran and China fourth, with zero points.Today the first two games ended in an almost identical score: 8-15 China-Serbia, 8-14 Romania-Spain. Croatia’s victory over the United States was clear cut and never in doubt in spite of a narrow final 2-goal gap. Much predictable the outcome of Australia-Iran, which the Aussies won 26-4.

China played bravely against the high ranked Serbian team and surprisingly managed to win the first period (2-1). However in the second quarter the Serbians decided to take command of the operations and scored four times. In the third period too the gap was of four goals in favour of the Serbians: they scored six goals and received two. In the last period the well balanced Chinese side answered all Serbian goals and managed to tie this fraction (4-4).Game scorers:1st Q. 5:03 Filipovic on action, with a lob shot; 4:29 Tan was the first scorer, on action; 1:28 China gained an unprecedented lead over Serbia: Xie striked from outsides and beat Serbia’s second goalie Gojiko Pijetlovic (2-1).2nd Q. 6:56 Mitrovic on action; 3:37 Vapenski on action; 2:40 and 1:50 Aleksic twice on action (2-5).3rd Q. 7:10 action goal by Guo from two metres; 5:59 Udovicic on action; 5:18 Prlainovic on action; 4:44 Wang on man-up; 4:35 Filipovic scored his second goal from the distance; 3:37 Gocic on action; 2:15 and 1:51 Nikic scored twice, the first time on x-man, the second finalising a breakaway action (4-11).4th Q. 6:34 Udovicic scored his second goal on action; the Chinese scored two consecutive goals, both on action: at 5:07 Liang, at 4:21 Wang; 3:19 Milicic on a breakaway action; 2:13 Liang scored his second on extra man; 1:58 Mitrovic on action. 0:27 Pijetlovic on action. 0:02 Li on action.Other remarks. In the first half of the game Serbia’s coach Dejan Udovicic had left most of his best players sitting on the bench. All Serbian players - except for the goalie Pijetlovic (who has substituted Soro in this game), and for Avramovic - scored at least one goal.China’s goalie Ge made some notable saves throughout the game.

The hopes of the Romanian players and fans – it was full house at the Oradea Olympic Pool for this match - started to fade away at half of the second period when the more agile Spanish squad started to take control. The low score (1-1) in the first period was the result of strong defences and some missed opportunities from both sidesSpain’s Minguell and Javier Garcia top scored the game with three goals each.Game scorers: 1st Q.: 7:04 Minguell (E) on action from outside; 6:19 Busila (R) from 2 metres on x-man (1-1).2nd Q.:5:50 Georgescu (R ) from outside on man-up put Romania one goal up; 3:39 Sziranyi (E) on action; 2:12 Valles (E) on man-up; 1:51 Negrean answers for Romania shooting in to the net from outside; 1:28 Minguell put Spain one goal up scoring his second goal from outside; 0:11 Felipe Perrone (E) scored his first on action (3-5).3rd Q.: 7:15 Iosep (R ) converted a penalty; 6:13 Javier Garcia (E) scored on man-up; 5.35 Matei (R ), also on man-up; 4:51 Martin (E) on extra man; 4:12 Minguell (E) scored his third an action goal giving Spain a 3-goal lead; 3.01 Georgescu (R ) answered Spain’s last goal scoring on a counterattack, on superiority; 2:41 Javier Garcia scored his second goal on penalty then Negrean (R ) hit the post from one metre; 1:57 left handed Mallarach (E) from outside; 0:27 Molina (E) scored on action with a lob shot (6-11).4th Q.: 6:44 Sziranyi (E) scored his second goal from outside; so did both Iosep (R ) 24 seconds later, and Valles (E) about a minute later, on extra man; 4:22 Javier Garcia (E) netted his third, also in superiority; 1:13 Diaconu (R ) on action (8-14).

Croatia played this game with the second goalkeeper Pavic between the posts. Rudic’s team won the first two quarters with the identical score of 2-1 and the third 3-1. In the last quarter the Americans were more incisive and capable of an efficacious but belated reaction which only allowed them to win the period 4-2.1st Q.: 5:39 Hutten (US) from outside. 4:56 Buric (C ) also from outside. 0:39 Sukno (C) from two metres on action (1-2).2nd Q.: 5:28 Wright (US) missed an opportunity on penalty, his shot hit the bar; the same did Buslje (CRO) less than a minute later;: at 3:50 Jokovic for Croatia, at 3:24 both teams scored one goal in superiority Bailey for the USA. 0:42 second goal for Sukno in the last minute of the period (as in the first period), again on x-man (2-4).3rd Q.: 7:04: Sukno (C ) scores his third goal in superiority. 3:40 Azevedo (US) converted a penalty. 1:21 Hinic (C ) from two metres on action. With less than second missing to the expiration of the period Jokovic (C ) scored his second goal (3-7).4th Q: 6:34 and 5:40: Hopkins (US) scored twice, the first time on penalty, the second on man-up, narrowing the gap to two goals; 3:24 Bailey (US) scored his second on extra-man; 2:58 Karac (C ) from outside; 2:25 Varellas (US) on action, USA just one goal down; 1:06 Jokovic (C ) scored his third goal, on two-men up, and reset the two-goal gap (7-9).